St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-27
His Condition So Serious That His Ply
siCians Refuse to Allow Him to
Continue His Argument.
A Great Crowd in the Court Room in the
Afternoon 10 Hear the Tall Syca-
more OF the Wabash.
HCn. Eugene NJ. Wilson Speaks for the
Proponent and Will Finish Up
This Morning.


day morning. He began his address in
low voice, and it was with difficulty
thatthe spectators heard what he said.
81 knew Col. Nelson from childhOod,n he
began, land l knew his father, his
brother, Gen. w. III. Nelson, whose work
ut Shiloh entities him to consideration
by the citizens OF this country. | am
here to speak in behalf of my client
against this outrage sought to be per-
petrated. This proceeding is alike I'M
natural and unnecessary. a lifetime of
devotion Is utterly OverthrOwn by this
document here. If it were a man who
claimed this will it would strike me as a
hOggiSh thing-a disposition to take
everything and send home to fond
sister only the corpse of a dead brother.
You have function TO perform in this
case. ItiSn't an idle ceremony that calls
you to that jury box. You must find the
facts according to the evidence and the
intelligence with which Almighty God
has endowed you. 1t is for you to say
how much credence a witness is
entitled TO. whether he be the at
tending physician or some other party"
Speaking in regard to Nelson's sanity at
the time the will was made, Congressman
WadSworth continued: The human
mind consists of the power to recollect,
TO decide and TO Will. If man is not
capable of either of these functions he
is not capable of acting in testament
airy capacity. | shall maintain this
proposition. If man at deaths door,
by reason of sickness, makes will by
which he suddenly changes the purpose
of his life and wholly unexplained. eX-
cept by the circumstances by which he
was surrounded when he died, then he
Is not capacitated to revoke 2 will made
in health and which agreed with the acts
of a lifetime. A man in this condition
might be of sound memory, but he
would not be of sound mind. The life
of Col. Nelson. his affection for his sis
ter, for his old Kentucky home, his
longing to be buried by their side, are
all irrecOncilable with this last act of
Col. Nelson" Taking the will from the
table and holding it on high he eX-
claimed, with ill-cOncealed bitterness:
THAT the signature of Col. Nelson. of
the United States armyl That the sig
nature of the man who wrote every
week to his sister, and in her illness
sent her regular remittanceSi That the
grand old signature of Col. Nelson,
shrunken and Shriveled to a thing like
thatl No. never: and all who have seen
his signature know that it is not" The
speaker passed to the testimony of DR..
Hopkins, who attended Col. Nelson in
his last illness, and to the testi-
mOny of Mrs. Nelson, who had
sworn that her husband was conscious
until the last few moments. At this
point the congressman turned pale and
graSped at the table for support. In a
moment he rallied and continued, but
his voice grew fainter and fainter, and
he sWayed about as though to fall. Sew
eTal of his colleagues left their seats
and stepped forward, but as they did
so he dropped back into a chair limp
and to all appearances dead. An adj
Journment was taken amid great excite
ment. and the congressman was carried
into an ante. room, where he was
cared for. Imam hour and a half he was
able to sit up and converse with his
friends, but was still weak and nervous.
1t was with difficulty that he appeared
at all in the afternoon. Congressman
WadswOrth is G5 years of age, and since
his return from congress has been
working very hard and is in weak con-
dition.
SENATOR VOORHEES, ADDRESS.
The afternoon session opened with the
court room crowded almost to Suffoca-
ton. Long before o'clock every seat
was occupied and all the standing room
was in use. The audience was about
one-third ladies', who had come to hear
Senator Voorhees, speak. Promptly at
2 O'Clock Judge LOchren assembled to
the bench, and the deputy sheriff rap
ped for order. AS soon as the session
opened Senator Voorhees, arose and said
he deeply regretted that Col. WadSworth
had not been permitted to carry out the
the remarks begun in the morning. II
come as a stranger" said he, but in re-
atty we are not strangers, as we are
drawn together by a strong desire to
see the law upheld BY this will a
great wrong is attempted, and we are
here to see justice done. If we cannot
show that Col. Nelson made his last will
while under temporary mental abbera-
ton, then we will submit to the newt
to set aside this will you all know there
is law in Minnesota which will settle
the estate Of Col. Nelson as he intended
it should be settled. This is simple
case, and while | ask you to
give the most serious attention to this
cause l do not ask you to do any in
justice. Let us look at this matter
calmly and coolly. There are people
from all over the globe here in Mime
sofa, and had | seen its beauties before
] might have settled here myself. 1t
was not Col. Nelson's disposition to
wander around the world. His home
was at Maysville, that little town On the
Ohio river, and there lived i'll peace and
happiness. He came home from the
war and found his sister there, and how
natural it was for him for love for her
to sink deep into his manly heart.
IT Is NOT TRUE
that Col. Nelson made q will leaving
everything to strangers and forgetting
his own relatives, whom he idoliZed as
only a man in the true sense of the
4 III
ever wrote or said gives the lie to this
will, as every tair-minded man must see.
Col. Nelson stood as father and brother
to this sister, protecting and caring for
her and protecting her children as his
own. Col. Anderson Nelson never
changed his home; his home was at
Maysville, where his sisters house was.
Can any man say Col. Nelson ever had
any other home, except his sisters
so. Does Mrs. Nelson show that she
made any sacrifice for her husband?
Did she help her husband to build up
his property? She did not Instead,
she was in Europe and in other
portions of the country. 1t is justice
now that she should come into this
property, to the exclusion of sister
who has given the best part of her life
to her brother. Mrs. Nelson was not
content with fair division of the prop
erty. She wants it all, and would send
the poor sister back home, alone and
forgotten by her brother. The great
question arises, was Col. Nelson's mind
sound when he is alleged to have made
the will leaving his property to his wife?
That is the vital question, and from all
that mortal man can see it was not.
The speaker reverted to Col. Nelson's
home life again, and drew a glowing
picture of his life among his relatives
and the children. Why, he asked, did
not the La IuIrnrc for tho nr0nnnnrat 1uanf